As the
world continues to get more and more technologically advanced, digital tools
and approaches become more and more engrained in our day to day lives. Universities
are no exception to these advancements as I am sure most of us can note how
technology, especially those dependant on the internet, have become more and more
so involved in our day to day lives. Email has connected us to the world around
the clock so that students and staff remain up to date, at the same time this
service also enables any quick questions to be answered without having to seek
out a meeting time with another individual. Research can be done almost
entirely online (depending on the subject of your research), as one now has
mass collections of research from media, to articles, and books at their finger
tips thanks to the digitizing and uploading of all of these formats on to easily
accessed databases. In turn once your research project is complete it can even
be submitted online. Entire discussion and courses are now being held online
too, making it so you don’t even have to leave the comforts of your own room. While
this can prove beneficial for students living in cities far from Guelph or who’s
schedules are a bit hectic, you also lose the aspects of face to face
interaction which for some people, myself included is a large part of a class.
You can go entire semesters discussing subjects with a group of people, yet
never know who the person is on the other end of the conversation. In online
courses, lectures are replaced by readings and slide shows, which depending on
your learning style can make learning significantly harder or easier. Yet it
seems like this is the way our world is drifting as it becomes more convenient
and seen as a financially better alternative.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what a
University can do using technology, for all I have described so far is Email
and Courselink. Depending on your classes, specific tools and software will be
introduced to better help you with the subject. I took a geography class last
year where the lab portions of the class were heavily reliant on a piece of
software known as Whitebox (created by Prof. John Lindsay of the University of
Guelph), which when coupled with LANDSAT images or even maps from Google Earth,
it can be an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to studying the earth from
the sky or space. A range of things can be achieved when using this software
from reconstructing old aerial photographs, to stitching together numerous satellite
images. I have also used programs such as PEAR to edit and be edited by other
students when writing papers and technologies such as the clickers have served
as an interesting way for classes to become a bit more interactive.
As I move on with my education and career, it is without a
doubt that digital tools and approaches will be a part of my future. As a student
of history, online databases will always prove one of the best starting points,
while the creation of displays be it for work or for school will always rely on
the likes of Photoshop, a great tool for producing visually impressive as well
as informative displays. Digital photography has also been a part of my life,
serving not only as a hobby but an effective way to document artifacts,
locations and events that occur at work during the past and future summers. The
limits of this new digital era are almost endless as it continues to evolve day
in and day out.
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